Caught in the Crossfire
by PoisonCupcake101
Summary: I should have been grateful when the Airnomads took me into their Airtemples; given me food, made me clothes, and all without hesitance. I just asked for one thing, freedom to go home. Their imprisonment had been something I had never gone through before, given anything I could ask for, yet isolated like some freak of nature. I was a Firebender, a lineage I was proud of, not fear.


I. . I can't believe I made it! I actually made it.

A grin made its way to my face at the thought. What should have been the impossible ended up being just pure chance of luck. But that happenstance might as well have saved my very life and given me a chance to do what I had been waiting for for year now.

"Are you alright?! I didn't think you'd jump! Appa's pretty afraid of fire and you startled him when you jumped onto him."

My happy triumph was short lived at the sound of that voice. Snapping up into a sitting position I eyed the air nomad who eyed me back with worry in his stormy grey eyes. I couldn't help but give the Airbender a frown of distaste, the only reason I was currently flying away from the Southern Air Temple was because I had to forcibly leap onto the bison; sustaining a broken arm and injured pride along the way. The air nomad before me had lost my trust the moment he dismissed my pleading and threw me against the wall just to have a night by himself.

I don't think that enough apologizing and motherly worry was ever going to get me to trust him again, not fully anyway.

The nomad faltered and shamefully looked away to lead Appa further into the sky. Once we were safely away from the Southern Air Temple and into the cover of the clouds, he spoke again, an awkward tone in his voice. In all honesty, i had pegged him to apologize, to give me a tone of shame for what he did, and of course, I was right, just another pacifistic monk "I really am sorry, for. . . for h-hurting you and. . . and-" I couldn't hear the last of his apology, from the wind in my inexperienced ears and his mumbling, i could only guess that he was apologizing for dismissing me.

I said nothing, coldly waving the apology away with a turn of my head and a distasteful frown on my lips. I wanted him to know that I didn't trust him, and I knew that he knew by the way he awkwardly turned away from me and said nothing. Giving the boy a side eyed look I turned my gaze to the skies around us, admiring the glow of the full moon and the stars that twinkled above us. I couldn't help but relax my guard at the scenery, staring at the passing clouds and the ocean below us was calming. I almost forgot that I wasn't alone until he spoke again.

"My name is Aang by the way. . . umm. . i never got your name." the nomad, now known as Aang, trailed off. I pursed my lips, not knowing whether to ignore him, or to comply with his excuse to start a friendly conversation. But if he was going to drop me off -which i hoped he'd do, being a nomad came with the job description of being a peaceful group of people, i might as well tell him my name.

"Its Pierre."

"Pierre? that's an interesting name. . . . "

I never responded, instigating another awkward pause between us, just the sound of the wind around us, and the waves below us; the bison occasionally making groans here and there, most likely due to his master's distress.

"Your arm! are you sure your okay?! it looks broken!?" came Aang's next exclamation, I blinked in surprise at his sudden cry of worry and blinked again when he suddenly seemed to teleport from Appa's head to inside the saddle, already coming closer for a closer inspection at my crookedly bent arm. I flinched back out of reflex and scooted as far away from him as I could in the saddle, giving him the most distrustful look I had ever given to a monk before "d-don't come any closer."

Aang gave me a look of hurt "I just want to see it, maybe i could help-"

"Like you could of done back at the temple- just stay back, please." I spat, pulling my knees up in hope of shielding myself from him. A little drastic I know, but it couldn't be helped, after that attack back at the Temple, it was no surprise i was a little jumpy around this supposed innocent and naive air nomad.

He gaped at me, giving me the very look i had given him when he refused to help me, with a sad frown he sluggishly sat back on Appa's head and went back to flying the beast of air, head drooped and shoulders slouched, completely silent.

In all honesty, that should have been me, but seeing him with that very emotion of hurt made me feel triumphant and vindictive, he deserved the very emotion he gave me. I gave him one more cursory glance for any indication that he might persist in 'helping' me before I turned my attention to said broken arm, painfully poking at the swollen flesh of purples and greens under the air nomad clothing i was forced to wear during my stay. I could feel the snapped bone in my forearm, pointed edges threatening to stab through my sky and muscle tissue. I pursed my lips in disdain, i didn't know how to fix a broken arm, nor did i know how to splinter it, or put it back in place, it seemed too painful to do it on my own. And plus, only Waterbenders could fully heal it, and i knew non. I sighed in slight worry, for now i'll just leave it be until we get to land. . . if we get to land that is.

Dragging my gaze from my arm to the Airbender, i frowned in thoughtfulness; I was curious, where we going to land any time soon? or was he just going to keep flying for an unknown period of time before retreating to the temple's? was he even going to drop me off despite my begging and his supposed apology "Hey Airbender? where are we-_you _going anyway?" I didn't have the mental energy to actually call him by his name, Airbender would do just fine.

Aang snapped his head up and turned to me with wide eyes of hope, I rolled my eyes at his probable thoughts of me warming up to him, it'll take a lot more than a friendly smile and a bit of worry for me to actually consider him a comrade "OH! uh? I was actually going to see my friend Bumi in the-uh- in Omashu. And maybe Kuzan, he was a Firebender too! umm- by the way." It was a wonder how i understood his speech through his stumbling, but I did with minimal effort.

"Omashu, huh . . . " I mumbled, at least i knew where we were going. I pondered whether I should leave Aang right when we landed in said Earth kingdom city, or opt to just stick with him for a free ride to the Firenation. It would be easier to just take the free ride, Aang was kind enough to do that for me despite our bad introduction and the way i'm most likely going to treat him from henceforth, but i was just tempted to ditch him once we touched down in Omashu; I didn't want to stay with him further, part from my agitation with him and my distrust that he would take me back to one of the Air Temples due to his elder's influence, not only that but what if he hurt me again? just because he was a pacifistic monk didn't mean he wouldn't incapacitate me to do what he wanted, he didn't seem to have a problem when he threw me against the wall.

"-iere, Pierre?-"

"What."

Aang shrunk away from my tone, but determinedly sat straighter, trying but failing to meet my eyes when he asked his question again "You-you wouldn't happen to know him would you?"

I furrowed my brows in confusion, to be completely honest, i had tuned out of his rambling halfway through our _'conversation'_ "Who?"

"Kuzan. . my friend in the Firenation? i thought that since you lived in the Firenation that you would know him, since you know. . . your a Firebender." Aang ended lamely with an awkward smile.

I stared at him with a look that practically said if he was really this stupid, "No, i don't know him, not all Firebenders know each other." I plainly stated, I didn't have the patience to deal with Aang's sweetness, in fact his mere kindness was fuel for my agitation in general, my heart was still annoyed at the fact that Aang was trying to cover up his previous heartlessness with light conversation and a play at his own sweetness. Like he knew that his kindness was a power that could be used.

The Airbender wilted and went back to staring at the night air before us "o-oh, right, yeah, of course." the excitement and wonderment long gone from his voice.

. . . "Kuzan is a popular name in the Firenation, I wouldn't know who you were talking about with just his name." I don't know why I did it, why I spoke to merely appease the Airbender before me. Maybe it was because of my guilty conscious, or maybe it was because his pacifism was starting to get to me, but for sure the exhaustion I felt all the same was there, my mental energy was drained and the adrenaline ridden anger I felt was appeased up till this moment. I just didn't want to deal with the Armadillo Lion Cub sadness that was wafting off of him any longer, it reminded me too much of myself in my younger years.

Aang perked up immediately, the curl of his lips the only indication I got of his appeasement before he was facing the night air again, the once awkward silence being replaced with content. And while we weren't exactly friends like he wanted, or at least comfortable comrades, I was just content enough to merely leave this where it was; silent 'roommates' so to say, merely a driver in my case.

It was Aang again that broke the silence "I. . I think there's a storm up ahead." he pointed out.

I blinked and shuffled to the side of the saddle, eyeing what he had been eyeing previously. A storm loomed ahead, heavy cumulonimbus clouds gathering into a hefty wall before us, from our position miles away, i could see the lightning piercing the skies under the storm clouds and stirring the oceans it resided above them, creating heavy waves and dangerous torrents. It was like nature itself was trying to warn us away, and i didn't like the sight of it one bit.

"Go back, we can find another way to Omashu." I stated, my eyes fearfully springing from the storm to Aang, who, to my disbelief, had a look of determination in his eyes like he was forcefully going to break through that storm head first, even if it meant detrimenting the lives of his companions.

Aang shook his head, stormy grey eyes eyeing the storm like you would a shower of rain, maybe i picked the wrong Airbender to forcefully catch a ride with "No, we can make it, trust me, this hadn't been the first storm i flew through."

I gave him a wide eyed look as we neared the storm "You shouldn't be flying through storms in the first place! isn't that like, the first rule of flying!?" i was getting a little desperate at this point, being imprisoned at a temple was one thing, but flying through a storm of this magnitude might as well be have been a death sentence.

Aang winced "Yeah, but Omashu is just passed this storm, and if we go around it'll take us more than week to get there. . " even with that revelation and the fact that panic was just starting to set into him as he neared the storm, he still had that look of suicidal determination in his eyes.

I gave him a panicked look, stumbling to Aang in desperation "But this isn't like one of your rain showers! this is a full blown storm! while your bison might be strong enough and you just as experienced! that doesn't mean you can go against this-this thunderstorm!" and thunderstorm was putting it lightly, this storm might as well have been made by the spirits of the spirit world, some very angry spirits that is.

"Just trust me, this shouldn't take longer than a couple minutes-" at this point even he sounded desperate, much to my confusion, how desperate was he to get away from the temples that merely going around this storm of destruction was a waste. However, while i might be just as desperate as him to get away, I wasn't so desperate to merely take a safer detour around the storm, a better solution than his suicidal one.

"NO! Take a detour NOW! WE WILL NOT BE GOING THROUGH THAT STORM! ARE YOU SUICIDAL!" Ignoring the pain of my broken arm I forcefully took a hold of the reins in the boys grip, wrestling for control as we neared. But years of less eating than what i should have, and my broken arm left me weaker than i used to be, Aang easily kept me at bay, fighting me for the reins as we sailed at the edge of the storm.

Watching it loom over us, my wide eyes fearfully watching the turning clouds beckon us further in, like we were nearing death's door. A stone of doubt and foreboding settled in my stomach, and I wanted to hurl.

With us fighting over the reins of the sky bison, and said beast groaning in panic as we neared the devastation of the storm, we disappeared into the mass of darkness and chaotic torrents of wind and lightning, my heart beating like a hummingbird.

I should have stayed at the Southern Air Temple.

* * *

**Sorry for republishing this chapter guys, I got a recent complaint that this Author's Note was too direct and hurtful, so i decided to change it up. Anyway, like I was saying, this idea of mine is something that i'll enjoy writing. I haven't seen many oc's who disliked Aang, and to me, it started getting pretty boring when an oc once again became friends with Aang on the first meeting. Yes I get it, many oc's would become friends with Aang because he's so nice and cool to be friends with. But for once I wanted to write a story where my oc didn't like Aang. **

**So I decided to create an oc who didn't act like Aang came from the heavens, Aang does have a bit of a dark side after all, i mean if mad enough or stressed he will hurt (Not purposefully of course, but remember, he's like 12, accidents happen) So yeah, my oc ain't going to like the Gang very much. **

**Sorry if Aang seems a little OOC, i mean, i tried to make him as Aang could be, and i tried to make him as negatively emotional as he should have been when running away from the monks, hurting my oc, and finding out that he was the Avatar in the same week. Yeah, allot of negative emotions in that boy that would of course make him suicidal to get to Bumi. **

**Anyway, thanks for reading~ **


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